Sam's Silver Fish match 17-10-09

With this being my last planned match of the year until the Xmas fur & feather matches and having recently written about my “year of hell”, I was hopeful of a good days fishing and looking forward to going for something other than carp. With 25 booked in and most of the lake taken plus the recent cold spell and bitter wind, we were unsure how the place would fish. Last year Nick ran a silvers match here which I won from peg 11 by finding some decent skimmers and small bream so my plan today was to target them to build some weight up.
After a good nosh-up at the local golf club, we met everyone at the draw and Vince Gould kindly volunteered to draw my peg as I was helping Nick with the draw. Out popped peg 11 which I hadn’t realised was the peg I drew last year until I looked at the pegging plan. Not that it mattered much because having only fished here once for silvers and once for carp, it hardly gave me any inside knowledge other than the skimmers can bulk your weight up.
At my peg I noticed the water level was down a foot or two which meant I was sitting high above the lake which wasn’t ideal. I also had a cold breeze in my face which would make my main line of attack difficult as it involved feeding maggot by hand. Last year the Roach and the few skimmers and Bream I caught all fell for shallow maggot at about 8m and this was how I intended to fish today. However, before I dropped a bait at 8m I also planned to chuck out a cage feeder a few times and also drop in some groundbait at 13m to see if I could draw some proper Bream in.
The whistle went and I shipped out 3 balls of brown and white crumb laced with hemp and corn on my 13m line. Then out went the cage feeder 6 times loaded with the same bait. The seventh cast then had a hooklength attached with a small dendra tipped with red maggot. Within a minute the tip received a tug but I struck too soon and missed the chance. This proved to be the only decent bite I had in half an hour of trying. Around me a few blokes were catching odd small Roach so I wasn’t worried just yet.
My next move was to drop in over the 13m line while loose feeding maggot at 8m to build up a few confident fish in front. Half an hour on this proved worthless so it was time to see what I had at 8m. The first few drop-ins resulted in some hand-sized Roach which was a start but the fish were clearly reluctant to come up too far off the bottom. Having plummed up the area I knew that my 13m rig would be good to fish over the 8m line so I fished on the deck at 8m but still feeding to get them up in the water. The rig had one of Nick’s deck floats on at 0.5g fished shirt-button style so I would be able to detect any bites on the drop. However, it turned out that they just wanted the double maggot bait lifted and dropped within the last foot of water to encourage a bite.
As the match went on the wind in my face became stronger and feeding by hand became a problem. I was catching skimmers and Roach steadily so I wanted to maintain the little and often approach as much as possible. I therefore picked up a pole catty and clipped a sprinkle pot on to my top kit. This would mean that I could feed almost as often as I could by hand but I would also have a constant trickle of maggot dropping over the float. There are some big Chub in this lake and I wanted to keep the bait falling through the water as much as possible to see if I could draw one or two them in.
As the match progressed I heard that Roy Gudgeon had around 15lb of Roach in his net and was catching one a bung. With Nick on the opposite bank apparently doing ok and Bill Gibbins next to me snaring a few I was under a bit of pressure. I tried to up the feed a bit, it was clear that the fish didn’t want to come shallow so I saw no harm in feeding heavier and less often. This would give me more time to concentrate on the float and lifting the rig and may encourage bigger fish to get their heads down. It worked and the skimmers began to look more like Bream and I also snared a couple of decent Perch. With about 2 hours to go the bites tailed off so I stuck on a few sections and followed the fish out. I ended up at 13m but had to switch to a standard catty as the small one couldn’t fight the head wind. I was now fishing over my groundbait line and the pole was being battered by the gusting wind that was now changing direction a lot. Fortunately the deck floats that Nick Gilbert makes are so stable that I didn’t need to fish over-depth or use a bulk near the hook length. I managed to maintain the same lifting and dropping process with the shirt-button rig and began to up the feed amount even further.
My 4th hour proved to be the best with a 4lb slab, a couple of 2lb skimmers and a 3lb Tench all going in to the net. I now felt that I was competing for 1st place and hoped that the better sport would continue. With an hour left I must have been one of the only blokes around the lake to NOT have hooked in to a Carp. I saw a number being caught that were close to or over the double figure mark and were taking some time to land on the light gear being used. The bites were drying up and I feared the worst..............BANG, carp on! I played it for about 5 minutes before the hook pulled.
It took me a while to get the peg back in order and I stuck another couple of skimmers in the net approaching the last half hour of the match. The peg went quiet again and after 5 minutes it happened again...........WHALLOP! This time the fish was bigger and my double 5 slip was being tested to it’s limit. This was the last thing I needed as I was fighting for 1st place and now wasting time playing perhaps the biggest Carp of my season. I tried hard to get it in to netting range but the fish was just too powerful and heavy. With 5 minutes to go the hook pulled and my rig ended up tangled around my top kit. Without a spare to grab and only a few minutes of the match left I decided to drop my cage feeder over the 13m line and pray for one more slab to increase my chances but alas, they just didn’t seem to like groundbait................weird!
The whistle went and it was clear that most had struggled for anything other than Roach with the odd bonus skimmer or Perch and nuisance Carp. Roy Gudgeon put a very challenging 21lb on the scales but fortunately the needle some how pushed around close to 25lb when I weighed in. This proved to be the best weight and FINALLY a decent result to finish my season on.
Last year I caught mainly Roach with a few odd bonus fish. Today I caught a decent number of bonus fish with the odd Roach thrown in. I like this venue, 2 wins out of 2 might have something to do with it but it is peaceful, attractive and you never know what you are going to catch next!

Tackle used:

NG Decker 0.5g no eyes, 5 rubbers, dotted down
No.8 shot grouped in pairs shirt button style with 2 no.10 droppers on hook length
0.14 Fox Micro rig line
Size 18 B510 pre-tied to 0.104 hook length
Preston Slip no.5 doubled down top 2
3 pints of red and white maggot laced with turmeric

The Year of Hell............

Last year was my first full season back into fishing after a break of 15 years and having caught up with modern baits and methods I felt ready for some action. As it turned out I had a pretty good season fishing around 24 matches and picking up in 16 of them including one or two wins and plenty of 2nds. My biggest envelope came from finishing joint 1st in a 2 day festival but was knocked down to 3rd on weight. I had fished a good cross section of opens, league matches and forum matches and felt that I had done ok. As I don’t fish much in winter I was really looking forward to spring and the start of Nick Gilbert’s Spring League consisting of 6 matches at Hartleylands and Monk lakes, kindly sponsored by Got Baits and with some decent anglers fishing it. Most of my success during this season came from fishing shallow, either on the waggler or the pole although I did need to fish the method a bit and of course the pole on the deck where it would prove more fruitful than fishing shallow. I also fished maggot on the waggler and pole on occasion and I do like a bit of maggot fishing.
The first match of the season was the start of the Spring League and was fished across Bramley and Peartree lakes at Hartleylands. I finished 2nd behind Nick but won my section which gave me maximum points and a good start to my campaign. I then went on to take 4 points from the 2nd match which was a bit disappointing but the draw was pretty bad so I couldn’t complain too much. From here on though, the pegs I was handed were very poor, summer hadn’t arrived yet and the field was strong so perhaps with poor pegs to fish I should have been more thoughtful about the methods I chose. As an example, the method feeder is a banker at Hartleylands all year but particularly in the cooler months. I suppose my results fishing shallow last year influenced my decisions as I wanted to do even better with it this year. Never mind, if there is one thing I need more than anything else it is knowledge of how these venues fish over a number of seasons and in different conditions and you only acquire this knowledge by knuckling down and doing your time!
After the league finished (I think I only finished half way up the table) we had the usual forum match across Bramley and Peartree lakes at Hartleylands which most of the league anglers fish along with a few mates from other forums. If you are an aggressive positive feeder then the last thing you want in a match is another aggressive positive feeder pegged next to you. Normally I end up with Nick Gilbert somewhere close by but fortunately he drew Bramley and I drew Peartree. This gave me a good chance of a lake win as most anglers would probably fish the pole or method and I felt the weather was now right to win by fishing shallow.
As a part of my learning cycle on these venues, I really wanted to know how quickly I could get a shallow pole line going so I decided to use this match as an experiment. I already know you can catch right away on the waggler but fishing shallow close in was still something I hadn’t played with much on this venue as I usually focus on the islands. I also decided to give the margins a fair chance but only if my main approach died on me.
As it turned out it took exactly 8 minutes to get my first fish shallow at about 7 or 8m so this would be valuable information for the future. Although summer had arrived and conditions looked good, the place still fished under par but 101lb won me the lake and I felt that my season had now started given my failure in the league.
I then fished one of the regular Pad’s Army opens at Monk lakes and as usual drew a mediocre peg that nobody would have fancied over the end peg flyers. I went straight into shallow pole mode after balling it in and was winning the match with 138lb right up to the last 2 blokes to weigh in and I was then knocked down to 3rd. Not bad, most anglers would take that on any 60 peg open but I don’t mind admitting to driving home a little disappointed.
From this point on though, everything went totally pear shaped. I started to draw really naff pegs again and it seemed that every venue I fished would switch off on the day I was there. Not just for me but for everyone. Even the 100+ peg Nick Puncher Memorial match at Hartlylands was weird. I drew the Res which I was dead chuffed about but the lake just didn’t fish. It turned out that the previous day there was a match on the Res with a couple of 200+ weights coming out and this just seemed to kill it whereas on Nick’s lake there were over 10 ton plus weights.
This was the way my summer continued........relentlessly.........every single match I fished I drove there praying that the venue would fish properly. It got to a point where I wondered if I should assume that the next venue would fish bad and go there to fish negatively but optimism always got the better of me.
I think I fished around 15 matches on the trot without ANY of them fishing properly. Winning weights would be lower than expected and most of the field would struggle for anything close to expected weights. What made it even more frustrating was the fact that these venues seemed to fish ok the week before or the week after. It was as if a constant change of air pressure was following me around wherever I went.
We then got into the Fish to Win qualifiers run by John Bell. This is a brilliant injection of decent sized matches with a final where the winner would take home £3000 at Lake John near Waltham Abbey. You needed to finish 1st or 2nd in any of the qualifiers to get there so the chances were not bad given that I entered 4 of them, 2 at Monks, 1 at Hartleylands and 1 at Wylands.
Needless to say my run of bad draws and poor conditions saw me pack up early at the first match, weigh in bobbins in 2 of them and manage only a 6th at Hartleylands from what was my best draw for a very long time. Unfortunately the wind was in my face and I had to fish the conker bomb and margins all day to put about 88lb on the scales.
Somehow I managed to qualify for the section winners match at Monks but the cost and the time of year would just make it too much of a gamble so I chose not to fish it.
With summer over and autumn well under way I only have one more match at Sam’s Lakes in Headcorn to fish which I am really looking forward to as it is a ‘silvers only’ match and I have had enough of carp for this year. After this I will be visiting my local rivers a bit as the nettles die down and then I have a couple of Xmas matches to fish. Maybe I will be persuaded to get out more this winter.
My thoughts at the moment though are focused on planning ahead for next year. I intend to trash all of my rigs in favour of new floats that Nick Gilbert is making for me and making up more rigs to cover more eventualities. A lot of my rigs need trashing anyway because they have been used once or twice and I want to start next season with a box full of pristine rigs and plenty of varied hook lengths. Nick is also working on one or two new patterns including a new dibber that should be even better than the last one so keep an eye out for his new range.
Lastly, I want to finish off by saying thanks to a few people. Firstly to Trevor at Got baits for sponsoring the Spring League, to Morgan who manages Monk Lakes for taking the time to chat at matches and discussing the new rules with me, to John Bell for putting the time and effort into bringing us an exciting competition and of course to everyone I fish with that makes the day more fun than just catching a few fish. I would also like to mention the Match Fishing Scene forum that is about to celebrate it’s first birthday. The moderators and administrators have done a great job creating what I think is the biggest source of information and communication in the world of match angling. If you haven’t already joined then it will be the best fiver you ever spend!
Let’s hope I have something else to write about before spring arrives and here’s hoping that the fishing next year get’s back to what it was in 2008!

Hartleylands forum match, Bramley and Peartree lakes

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When the Spring League finishes, Nick usually runs a match open to members of various forums. The match is usually booked across the two small match lakes, Bramley and Peartree, which although have 20 odd pegs each, can really only hold 10 without causing problems of fishing too close together towards the islands. I usually use this match as an opportunity to experiment with a few things as there is nothing much to lose apart from the pools which were being split over the top 2 on each lake with a small section payout as well.

The weather has been very good recently although the past week has seen the odd tropical rain storm however, the temperature had shot up today and we were going to be in for a real scorcher. A few of us were chatting over breakfast about the possible weights and the chance of the lake record being broken on Bramley as we were fishing for 6 hours today. I have never fished a 6 hour match before and to be honest I don’t feel that 6 hour weights should be allowed to count as match records so my main thoughts of today were focused on a big weight and a chance to experiment with a couple of things.

I just want to talk for a moment about what I wanted to experiment with today. Firstly, I feel that in good conditions you need to find the method that puts fish in your nets the quickest. Now that may seem obvious but up until the end of last summer I would reach for my waggler rods before anything else on this venue. Fishing the pellet waggler is a very successful method here along with the method feeder and occasionally fishing down the edge for lumps and anglers usually go with the method they are best at. However, in a couple of matches on this venue I have fed a shallow pole line at around 10m to see if the method could work as well as it does at Monk lakes. When I have done this the fish have always been there at the first put-in which has previously been around 40-60 minutes or so. So one of the experiments I wanted to run today was to see how quickly I could catch shallow at a 7m line. This would show me whether I need to feed and fish to the islands for a while so the pole line can build up or whether I can go straight out on the quicker method.

Something else I wanted to try out in this hot weather was laying down a large bed of feed in a margin swim and see how productive it could be. Given that we are fishing for 6 hours up until about 4 o’clock, the lumps should come in and potentially add significant weight to the nets of smaller fish. I opted to feed hemp with a bit of corn mixed in and fished a new soft hooker pellet over the top. Trevor Price (GOT Baits owner) sent some down as part of the prize hamper for the spring league and told me that they were not on the market yet. They are a large soft dark pellet, probably a 10mm-12mm expander but coated in a slightly sticky white substance that really does look and feel like emulsion. They actually look delicious and would be easily visible on the deck.

So my plan today was to feed shallow close in and down the edge and hopefully not need to pick up the waggler rod at all although I did bring a pair with me along with a bomb rod. At the draw I was given peg 24 which is on the car park end at the point of the first island. It is not a noted peg and even though the weather was hot I would still expect to catch better from the pegs opposite the gap between the islands. I wasn’t too bothered though as I am always quite confident of catching well up in the water at this time of year. By the way, this is now 8 times out of 8 matches that I have drawn Peartree rather than Bramley!

As this was to be a 6 hour match, the ‘all in’ was sounded at 10.15 and I threw some pellets out at 7m and dumped 2 jam jars of hemp down the left hand margin which looked a better option than the right hand margin as I could ship the pole a reasonable distance along the bank and under the branches of a bush. I flicked a few more pellets out at 7m and shipped the pole out with my fingers crossed that I would get a quick response. My eyes were half on the float and half on my watch as I flicked pellets out every 5 seconds. I started off at 18” deep and continued feeding every 10 seconds and slapping every 10 seconds as I usually lift the rig out as soon as the pellet has had time to reach maximum depth. Looking around the lake it seemed everyone was having a slow start and clearly not feeding much apart from Al Loader to my left who was out on the shallow pole as well.

I looked at my watch as I was shipping in my first carp of the day……….. 8 MINUTES !!!
This information will prove very valuable from now on, especially as we have the Nick Puncher Memorial match approaching on this venue and over 100 anglers will be fishing. I need to test this response out more in the future but if today was anything to go by then I know that I only need to fish to the island for a few minutes to pinch a few carp before taking a look close in. By the way, my shallow rigs were the same as they always are and I had a ‘long line’ rig for easy slapping and so that I could flick the rig beyond the pole tip and keep the pole off their heads in these calm conditions. The second rig was a ‘short line’ rig to use if the fish became more confident and started to hang themselves. I also brought some more of those white pellets with me that Nick had mentioned a few weeks ago. I’m not sure if he feels they work any better on the hook than the usual darker pellets but I am beginning to think that they do. They are a little larger than expected for 6mm pellets and the feed pellets seem smaller to me than usual. The white ones do seem to get a bit slippery when wet but they hold together well and stay in the band a bit longer.

Anyway, after my 8 minute wait for the first fish I started bagging and had 20 fish in the net within the first hour, including the initial 8 minute wait where I could have had a few on the wag as well. The fish were all very small though, around the 1lb mark rather than the usual pound and a half. Things slowed down a bit during the second hour but adding a section and keeping up the feed I still managed 35 fish by the 2 hour mark. The conditions were now extremely hot and the lake was dead calm so I decided to sling 2 handfulls of hemp down the edge and rest the shallow line a while.

On went a large white expander and as soon as the float settled under the bush it shot under and the doubled 8 slip came peeling out of the pole. Unfortunately I couldn’t have any spare sections attached behind me due to a bushy tree to my right so I had to hold on with only 5.5m in my hands. I managed to reach for another section to add on while the fish steamed off and soon a nice plump 7lb carp was netted. I began to think I had made a good call by feeding heavily under that bush.

Another pellet went on but the float was just bobbing around from small stuff nibbling it. This is a problem at HLF as there are a lot of tiny silvers that will attack a soft bait and I therefore opted to re-load the jam jar in an attempt to draw more carp in to push the silvers out.
Back out to the shallow line then and the fish were queued up waiting. I continued to catch and began to slip the fish into a second net having put 40 in the first. Again though things eased up and although the fish were all at the depth I wanted them, they just seemed more interested in basking than feeding. I stuck another dozen fish in the net by the 3 hour mark before resting the swim again.

I had been feeding handfuls of hemp down the edge every 20 minutes to make a bit of noise and to hold the bigger fish there so it was now time to take another look. A few missed bites then resulted in a couple of small carp so it seemed the very few larger fish were up for it today. I stuck a couple more jam jars under the bush and went out shallow again.
By the close of the 5th hour I had about 75 fish and was quite disappointed at their size and that the hot conditions seemed to spoil the chance of a big weight. I was sure that 150lb – 200lb would be on the cards but with 75 fish I would be lucky to get close to a ton!
Altering depth was not an option as I was pricking them as I lifted the rig. The fish were all up at 12” and quite a few were cruising around my swim. I did manage to mug one or two of them that seemed a little closer to 2lb but they just weren’t that fussed on eating even if the sound of the pellets was drawing them in.

My thoughts kept tempting me to go down the edge again and try to put some weight together to compensate for the smaller fish but I kept thinking back to this fixture last year where I decided to fish half the match shallow and stay down the edge for the second half as an experiment to see if the lumps would build a better weight. Looking around the lake I was unsure how close certain other anglers were to my weight as I had seen a couple of blokes catching reasonably well. What if their fish were bigger than mine? Should I stay shallow or go down the edge? Finally I made my decision as I really wanted to give the margin swim a reasonable chance to prove itself to me and the final 45 minutes was devoted entirely to the bush.

So, in went 4 handfulls of hemp and out went the rig. Every time I hooked a fish I chucked another handful down there to settle them. I lost 2 more lumps due to not having enough pole behind me to cater for their runs but I stuck at it in the hope that I would be able to tame one or two. Unfortunately most of the fish were just around the 1lb to 2lb mark so it seemed that even down the edge it was only the small fish that were interested.

Fortunately a bit of cloud cover started to pass over, I was really hot and fishing for 6 hours in this heat left me hoping for the final whistle. It came and I was passed the scales to do the weigh-in.
I finished on 82 fish for an estimated 100lb and the scales showed 101 odd. A few weights in the 80’s and 90’s were recorded but it seemed my disappointing day had won the lake. Bramley had fished a bit weird as well but the weights were a little better. Nick won the Bramley match with 123lb so we both went home £65 better off and I left with some valuable information about this place and how the weather can affect the fishing.

My next match will be the Nick Puncher Memorial 100+ open. Fingers crossed for a good draw!

Evening pairs match, Sam's Lakes Headcorn

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I’ve never fished an evening match before but the idea of avoiding the mid-day heat and enjoying the cooler hours and potentially better evening fishing was appealing. Nick needed a partner and knew how much I like this venue so we drew at 4 and fished from 5 until 8. I’ve only fished this place about 3 times and the match today was on the bottom lake that I have only ever fished for silvers. Usually everyone fishes for the carp but I wasn’t sure of the stocking density. They also seem to be caught mainly from around the group of islands to the right and not in open water. Continuing with my year of bad draws I pulled out peg 5 which was in no-man’s land with only open water and Lilly pads close in to my left. Nick, who I am slowly begging to think is a magnate (no, not that sort of magnate) drew a peg in the middle of the island cluster but without an island chuck. Without knowing if Carp would dominate this match, I took 3 pints of maggot with me as this place is stuffed with silvers as well as the usual carp gear and a box of mixed pellets, meat and corn.

At the start I fed a couple of jam jars of the mixture by the Lilly pads and chucked out a conker bomb clipped up at the same distance as my pellet waggler which was about 40m. I fed 8mm pellets over the top to draw them up but didn’t have anything but liners for half an hour.
Next out was the waggler and I began to catch fish between 2lb and 8lb but not as quickly as Nick who was apparently catching them one-a-bung. I rested the swim about half way through the match and had a look by the Lilly pads but there was no sign of life down there.

During the course of the match I was feeding maggots 10m out at about 2 o’clock. The swim was absolutely swirling with fish but I didn’t see anything bigger than a few ounces and all the while I was putting carp in the net I wasn’t about to fish for silvers.

To cut a short story even shorter, I weighed in 40 odd pound of carp which was 2nd on the lake and Nick had around 100lb.............in 3 hours! Good enough for a win and a lovely evening’s fishing.

Monk Lakes 1 & 2 - Pad's Army charity open

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These matches seem to be quite popular and are drawing anglers from further afield. In the car park I was approached by a guy that sounded Scandinavian, (sorry mate I didn’t ask your name but thanks for coming over). He recognised me from my blog and told me how interesting he finds it and also Nick’s blog. We had a good chat and then went up to the draw. Out came peg 61 for me and I was relatively pleased to be on the left side of lake 2 and half way up the spit. It could have been better but at least I was in with a chance if the fish were in the mood.
Arriving at my peg I found a youngster to my right called Ross who helps out at Monks and has recently been selected for the England Juniors squad (or something impressive like that). We had a chat once we were all tackled up and he is going to do well for himself.
Now at this point the weather was looking a bit suspect, chilly, cloudy and not many gaps in the cloud cover but there was a good breeze (as usual) and I hoped it would push the clouds over quickly. My hopes were met and by the time the match started it was turning in to another sunny June day.
I decided on 4 rigs, 2 of which would be based around my usual shallow approach at this venue. Both rigs had “Matt’s Slappers” made by Nick Gilbert, one was a long-line rig for slapping hard (about 4’ from float to pole) and the other was a short line “hang ‘em” rig for the self-hooking method. Next was a margin rig, I had a good depth and lots of reeds so a short Gilbert diamond went onto this one. Finally, as I had a spare 20 minutes I decided to stick on a deck rig for out in front (just in case) and this had a long Gilbert diamond on it. Hopefully neither of these rigs would get wet but sometimes the margins can work well if you need to rest the main line or it dies all together.
I took some hemp for down the edge, cheaper than my favoured caster approach and I wanted to see if it would work just as well. The main bait though would be 6mm hard pellets although I did take a box of different pellets with me to try as a change bait. They seemed to work well but I will keep these pellets secret for the time being just in case it was a fluke that they worked better than the usual ones. Something I did notice today was the size of my main feed pellets. They seemed a lot smaller than the “secret” pellets I took. The feed pellets this year seem darker than last year and I am also wondering if they are a bit smaller for some reason or maybe the “secret” pellets were just a bit bigger, maybe 6.5mm.
On with the match then and as the horn sounded I balled in 8 jaffas of method mix with a packet of yellow pineapple Atomic Cloud mixed in at around 8m. After flicking a few pellets over the top I shipped the pole out and connected with a 2lb carp immediately. You know that feeling when you start catching straight away? Well in the first 5 minutes I had 5 carp in the net, rock n roll!
Things didn’t remain at this speed for long though and within the first hour I had around 20 fish which was still ok given their size. Now something I have noticed this spring is that every match I have fished the sport has taken a dive around mid-day and sure enough as I was beginning to suspect that I could do the double ton, the bites dropped off. I spent the next 2 hours altering depth, changing the pellet type, changing my feeding pattern and going a bit longer. This was not wasted effort though as I was still putting fish in the net, just not quite as quickly. I continued with this but had to fish at 10m for bites and needed to chop and change which hand I was feeding with in order to get the bait out to the right distance. With the breeze today it was hard to reach 10m with my left hand so often I was holding the pole in my wrong hand in order to feed with my right hand. I have done this before and it works fine but just takes a bit more energy and can get quite tiring.
After a lot of chopping and changing I settled on one specific depth and feed rate that seemed to work best and this entailed throwing quite a few pellets out every few seconds. The fish seemed to respond better to a more positive approach.

During the 4th hour the fishing seemed to pick up again and I had a good spell but the bites still dropped off after a while. I decided to put on one of my alternative pellets and this seemed to work well. I maintained my feed rate and worked hard until the final hour when I had the fish swirling and boiling in front of me. In fact, they were responding so well I managed to get them back to 8m which was great because I could lose a section and go back to the easier fishing and feeding with my left hand.
I stuck a third net in now as I didn’t want to risk having too much in them and now the fish were coming one a bung and I was rocking. My thoughts of a frame place had disappeared when the bites tailed off at mid-day but I was now putting about 1lb of fish in the net every minute! Then disaster struck and 15 minutes before the end a decent carp managed to get under my nets and I had to remove them all from my spray bar in order to save the fish and get my rig back. The fish had shed the hook on to one of the nets and I lost a good 10 or 12 minutes fishing time when the bites were coming fast. I managed another few fish before the end of the match and estimated around 110lb which I felt would only be any good if the lakes had fished hard. That dry spell at mid-day seemed to mess my chances up and maybe I should have gone down the edge but I was reluctant to do this when I was still catching out in front.
There was something else that I felt spoiled my chances today and that was lack of preparation. My new job consumes so much time that a Saturday match means I have limited time to prepare on Friday evening. One thing I forgot to do last night was check my hook length boxes and I realised that I only had a couple of 14’s tied to 0.18 and a few 12’s tied to .18 as well. I would normally use a 14 to 0.16 or 0.18 if the fishing is frantic and I like to change my hook length when the hair becomes twisted or kinked. I therefore had to fish the second half of the match with 12’s tied to 0.18 which was far from ideal.
I wandered over to the far bank of my lake and there was a weight of 115lb on the board already and I was convinced that had beaten me. Word on the street was lake 1 had fished bad and 102lb had won it but I thought I had more than that in my net. As the scales came along my bank a bloke weighed in 124lb and I knew that I was now stuffed and was regretting my lack of preparation and that mid-day dry spell.
As I took out the third net that I put in it seemed quite heavy and went about 40lb. I was now worried that I may have put too much in my other nets but they were close to 50lb each and my total was 136lb which surprised me. A few blokes were chatting to me along the bank and a couple of them belong to Total Fishing. They were nice blokes probably from Surrey I would think as they mentioned waters from over that way.
Young Ross next to me pulled out his nets and put a very respectable weight together, I think he had around 50 or 60lb which is good going among the field of experienced adults on the pond!
As we walked along the bank a few blokes were asking me how I fished the match and it was apparent that nobody had caught down the edge. Maybe I made the right choice by staying on the shallow line? Then at the end of the spit there were some heavy nets but fortunately they only went 125lb keeping me in the lead. I heard a few blokes moaning that they hadn’t caught well on the back of the spit and people began to assume I had won it.
I decided to take my gear back to the car at this point and as I returned there were only 4 left to weigh in towards the bridge. One bloke had 200lb on meat down the edge and another had 150lb. Bugger!
So I was knocked down to 3rd place and went home with only a small trophy and £50. Never mind, at least my run of bad draws seems to have evolved into average draws now!
There are few things that I was pondering on today and I need to investigate these during this summer.

Firstly, when I ran out of size 14 hook lengths and used 12’s instead, I was still getting plenty of fish, these are the hooks I use for bigger fish and the hair is about 10-15mm long. I was under the impression that this was too long for small carp but it didn’t seem to affect the bites-to-fish ratio. Perhaps a longer hair is better or at least not worse than a 5mm hair!
I was also using doubled 8 slip today but when netting the fish I still had to stand for the 2lb and 3lb carp. Even though I have reduced the amount of slip in my kits by adding Dacron, I think I might have to bite the bullet and cut my top kits down and use much less in them. Doubled 8 should be able to handle anything really and doubled 6 should be fine for the smaller carp. Now where is my hack saw?
Another point to note was that the “secret” pellets sunk quicker than the usual ones but nearly all my bites came when the rig slapped the surface so maybe the sink rate did not matter much. In fact, I think it is entirely possible that because I feed and then slap, the pellet was catching up with the feed instead of falling on top of it. Maybe I am just imagining it though but I will pursue this thought further. Also, the fish seemed to like the “secret” pellet more, perhaps it made no difference but the fishing just got better and there is a rather unique feature about these pellets that may have something to do with increasing bites. Again I will have to dabble more with this before I send you all off on a mission to waste your cash on a lost cause!
I have to say that although my hopes of a win were trashed at the last hurdle, the best thing about today was the number of blokes that approached me for a chat. And good luck to Ross pegged next to me, you had me worried half way through the match! I’m not sure if you need any help with your fishing but if you want some advice on fishing shallow then just ask me next time and I will help you as much as I can.
Let’s hope this weather holds up and gets better, there are some good matches and festivals coming up and I don’t want another summer of fishing spoiled by the weather!

The rivers and streams of Yalding

When I was just over 2 years old my parents moved from middle Kent to suburban London and that is where I spent the next 37 years of my life. My Dad would bring me ‘back home’ for a bit of river fishing now and then but as I grew into my teen years I became more interested in the local lakes where Roach, Bream, Tench and Crucian Carp offered better sport. More recently, I moved out of suburban London and back to the heart of Kent and started to explore the rivers that surround the village. It's a bit like having a holiday every weekend as all of these rivers and streams are between a few yards and 1 mile of my cottage. The Beult in fact is just a few yards away and this photo was taken last winter from my front door. The river is just out of sight at the bottom of the pathway.



And this is the Beult at the end of the path but this time in summer:



There are Roach, Chub, Carp, Dace, Perch.........and some nice Bream too:



Walking out of the village is a gravel stream on the way to the Medway and Teise about ½ mile down the road...........I haven't seen any fish in it as it's only a few inches deep but I bet there's a few Trout or Grayling around somewhere!



And this is the Teise just before it meets the Medway. I fished this stream a bit further up last winter with a mate and we had some nice Roach and Chub around the 10-14oz mark, all in about 18" of water.



And this is a nice lumpy Perch in the Teise.............the stripey thing just under the bank, probably a couple of pound in weight. I've seen some nice Chub taking food off the surface here but it's not easy to fish this stretch unless you pick a week day when the families with kids and dogs won't be playing in the stream.



And this is the Medway itself. Quite deep and slow. I've not fished it for over a year but there are some nice Roach and skimmers plus Chub and Carp around. The banks are nicely cut and you can fish the moorings after October.



I've not fished these rivers much, just a handfull of times but this winter I think I will keep some maggots in the fridge for those frosty weekend mornings!

Fishomania 2009 qualifier Monk Lakes

Having only returned to angling recently, this was the first time I had entered a Fisho qualifier and out of the 2 venues I went for I was lucky enough to receive a ticket to Monk Lakes on my doorstep. With probably 6 pegs that could possibly win, I went with little hope of framing but the day would be fun as a lot of anglers I know were fishing this as well.

At the draw I waited for a few mates to dip their hands into the bucket but very few good pegs were coming out. Nick Gilbert drew 34 which isn’t worth diddly and then my hand went into the bucket. Now the chances of drawing a flyer are about 1 in 20 and the chances of drawing next to your mate are about 1 in 60. Yep, I drew peg 33 on lake 1 which is worth even less than 34 as it is only half a peg being tucked up in the wrong corner with the side bank halving the amount of water you can fish in. To top it off, another mate Jeff drew 36 so we were all on the worst lake, on the worst bank and up the worst end………….oh joy!

Arriving at my peg I found that things were even worse than expected, the fishery had closed the inlet to the lake for precautionary reasons and the water level was down by several inches thus I have now named that peg ‘The Beach’ due to the fact that you could see the lake bed sloping up to the left hand bank a metre or two out. This also gave me no margin depth therefore limiting my options even further. To cap it all off, the weather was cold, overcast and there was no prospect of it warming up during the day…………oh joy!

Luckily Nick had got me 4 pints of maggot the day before just in case the weather turned and so all the pellets, paste and groundbait stayed in the carryall. Well mine did anyway but ‘Big Guns Gilbert’ balled in 6 babies heads at the start which I am sure entertained some of the blokes sitting around the lake carefully placing 4 micro pellets into their pole pots!

My approach was going to be a little more subtle than balling it in and to Nick’s amusement I attached a Fox sprinkle pot to my ‘out in front’ top kit and then proceeded to set up 2 margin rigs just in case any fish decided it would be a good idea to feed in 8 inches of water!

Now for anyone else reading, the rest of this blog could sound very dull however, the day was actually fun with lots of banter, various mates coming along for a chat and the occasional offer of a cuppa. So there is not much to say other than I focused on a maggot line at 10m, going longer later in the day and used the sprinkle pot and catty to feed. I used a Gilbert diamond pole float which is extremely stable, 0.16 Fox Micro with a 16 B611 tied to 0.12 and double maggot (red and white).

At the weigh-in, Nick had a quick look inside his net and after close inspection found some fish in the bottom.




Fortunately my maggot approach earned me a few more fish to put 37lb on the scales which was 3rd in section from the duff end of the bank. At least I had won a quid off Nick and had a good day!

Pole floats - using rubbers instead of eyes

For a while now I have been asking Nick Gilbert to make my floats without eyes. This includes glass stem deck floats as well as dibbers but here I will talk about the deck float.



On the long deck floats I use 4 rubbers on the stem and 2 on the tip and if you can find the right diameter silicon then you can make the end rubbers tight and the middle rubbers a bit looser to make sliding the float up and down the line easier. I also ensure the bottom rubber is around 10mm plus so it over-hangs the stem a little to keep the line under the stem and not to the side and it also provides more grip. I use 2 rubbers on the tip in case 1 splits and also so that I can slide one up to the tip if I want to, perhaps for paste fishing when you want absolute direct control of the float.

The reason I only use rubbers is that you have less components to suffer wear and tear, especially in snag pits and it reduces the chances of tangles and hook-ups, especially in windy conditions. I have even used this set-up with back-shot when the two top rubbers are at the base of the tip and find that I prefer this to any rig where the float has eyes. Let's face it, we don't need eyes on stick floats do we?

No doubt there will be those that insist having eyes is better but for Carp and larger silvers on days when bites are plentiful, I find using rubbers is simple, reliable and saves time.

GOT Baits ISK League round 2 – Monks lake 1

Sometimes there is little you can do to frame and even to win your section but in a league that is all about points then you can at least try to do something about getting the most out of your section and out of your peg. Today was a hard, cold day on a fickle venue that usually fishes well through the warmer months but can be harshly affected by conditions. Raised high and with no protection from the elements, the match lakes at Monks can suffer with howling winds and bitter cold even though down in the car park things seem quite calm.

So today I pulled up into the car park and met a few of the lads by the café. Within minutes I was regretting the fact that I had only worn a pair of shorts and a fleece and before long I was rummaging around in the car for a pair of waterproof trousers I thought I had lurking around. Thankfully they were there as my legs were beginning to turn a worrying blue colour and we all know that I don’t do BLUE! Having discussed the weather prospects, I visited the on-site shop and bought 4 pints of maggots as the only bait I had brought with me were hard sinking pellets and a few worms.

At the draw I pulled out peg 13, an end peg but up the wrong end, on the wrong side of the lake! For company to my right was Johnny Watt who also insists on buying red gear so our corner of the lake looked like a poppy filed with red luggage and clothing all over the bank. To his right was Rusty and being a good shallow angler I expected him to try and catch up in the water which might help me out to determine whether it was going to work. In other words, if I see him catching shallow then I know that I need to give it a go.

Today was going to be tough to call. Would it warm up a bit? Will they feed shallow? Should I focus on points and small baits? Where in my end peg should I fish? Will the wind become stronger and ruin any long pole line? How much tow will there be? I needed to do some serious thinking! I set the pole up and shipped out with a deck rig and plumbed up. At a comfortable 8.5m I had a very shallow 3’ so on went another section where I found 3’ 6” and decided to fish here for 2 reasons. Firstly, if the wind became any stronger and I fished further out then I would risk not being able to fish the swim I had fed. Secondly, if the fish come shallow then I would want to fish fast and easy and 10m is about the limit for feeding with one hand and slapping the rig with the other, especially if it is windy. So my decision was made to fish an easy length where I could fish up or down comfortably in the strong wind blowing from the right.

Towards the corner of the lake to my left, I also had an inviting line of reeds with a depth of around 3’ along the edge. My previous experience on hard days at Monks has taught me that feeding down the edge can rescue your position, especially later in the day when everything seems to have died out in front. I have had success feeding both caster and small pellets but using half a Dendra on the hook. A constant feeding pattern of a good handful every 5 or 10 minutes seems to attract and hold some decent fish. Given that this feed rate works out a bit expensive with casters and a waste of money if you don’t use them, I now opt for pellets unless it is winter and I know the fishing will be hard. Pellets need to be small but micros are too small for windy days so I opted for 2mm although 3mm would have been better in the wind. I also took some hemp for the same line as there are plenty of Barbel in the venue and I doubt either the Barbel or Carp would mind it going in as well as the pellets.

So, I now had 3 options in 2 swims. The margin, the 10m line with maggot on the deck and the 10m shallow if possible. I also brought with me a pair of pellet waggler rods and a bomb rod. I took out one of the waggler rods to fish either of 2 lines. Firstly out in front thinking that if it was a nice day then some of the bigger Carp could be hanging out in the middle and secondly I had the left hand bank which isn’t pegged and although shallow and featureless, there could be Carp there having been ‘walked up’ the bank.

Top kits were set up with doubled 8 slip for the shallow rig, doubled 6 Slip for the margin (I am currently trying this ‘doubled slip’ fashion thing) and then standard 12 latex for the maggot rig.

All floats today are made by Nick Gilbert, a dibber, a 0.6g Diamond for out in front and a 0.4g short Diamond for down the edge. The tow will be harsh and these fibreglass stemmed floats will be very stable. Although the shallow rig and margin rig were tied to 0.20 Fox Micro, I did step down to 0.14 on the maggot rig (for anything that swims) and a B911 hook.

Nick blew the whistle at 10.30 and I threw 2 handfulls of hemp and 2 of pellets down by the reeds and shipped my maggot rig out with a toss pot full of maggots. I didn’t want to use the catty at first as the wind would blow the maggots all over the place and although I usually feed a lot heavier than 1 toss pot every few minutes, I decided that it would be best to keep things tight in the wind.

After a few lifts and drags the float dipped and a nice carp was in the net. Another pot full and another few minutes later Carp number 2 was on it’s way in. Things were looking steady and after half an hour I had 5 fish for about 6 pounds which although is not good going for this place, it was steady and promising.

The steady sport continued up to the end of the first hour until I detected that the swim could do with a rest. Having fed the margin regularly, I decided to take a look so re-fed the maggot swim and ship half a worm down the edge followed by a handful of hemp and pellets. After a wait of 3 or 4 minutes the float slid under and a nice 2lb Carp came in. I re-fed the maggot line and shipped another half worm down the edge but the tip remained above the water with no further indications. I therefore decided that the margin swim needed longer to settle and went back out onto the maggot line where there were a few blades and the odd Carp and Ide waiting for me.

Hour 2 went by with smaller fish going into the net and bites slowing down. I estimated 15 proper fish and some bits for around 15lb. Another look down the edge brought me a small Tench and one more Carp but I had to swap between lines to string a few bites together. As time wore on, the sun came out and although the wind was still strong I noticed Rusty catching quite well on a shallow rig so it was time to give it a go. For 20 minutes I pinged pellets out to 10m and slapped and tapped all I could but to no avail. I just couldn’t buy a bite and was now worried that I may have over-fed the maggot swim with pellets. A look on the maggot rig provided little other than a few bumped blades and an odd Ide. Things were now looking grim!

I re-fed the maggot line to get them back onto the smaller bait and started feeding more heavily down the edge thinking that I might need to make the swim work better for me during the last hour or so. A quick look earned me another Carp around 3lb which was VERY welcome but still I could only draw one fish at a time from the swim.

Around the 4 hour mark I decided to take a chance and chuck the pellet waggler out just in case there were some nice fish sitting out in the middle. The sun was quite warm now but the wind was still cutting but I thought it was worth a look. 20 minutes of pinging and re-casting brought me nothing but 1 jerk on the tip which was probably the hook pulling from a foul-hooked fish.

With about 45 minutes left of the match I needed to decide what I was going to do with the time. I looked up the bank to assess what I thought my section had caught. Johnny next door was having a rough time and I was sure I was beating him. Rusty next to him was way ahead but the next 2 pegs along seemed not to have caught a great deal. I made the call and opted to ensure that I got every ounce of fish in the net that I could and try hard to take a section 2nd. I wanted to feed heavy with maggots but still be accurate so I brought the 10m maggot rig in to 5m and started feeding by hand. It was the time of day that fish expect the margins to get fed with unwanted bait and so maybe I could kick-start a new line.

Within minutes I was picking up blades and the odd Ide and I was hammering the bait in. Half a handful every 30 seconds or so and this was bring me bites but mainly from small fish. I kept this going until within 10 minutes I decided to look down the edge for one more decent carp. After a couple of minutes I missed a bite but sat there until the last minute hoping for a last bite…………..and it came. The whistle went and I called ‘fish on’ and gently played a 2lb Carp to the net. I guessed at 30lb overall but it is difficult to be accurate with so many small fish in the net.

There was plenty of groaning around the lake and a few guys approached me to report their stories of woe. I was expecting Nick to have winkled out a few but he walked along the bank with his head held low. The flyers would probably have done ok but it seemed that most other pegs had struggled. Me? I was just clutching on to the possibility of 4 points and luckily I got them having come 2nd in section.

A hard day’s work it was and I am not too disappointed that I have to miss the next fixture which is on notorious lake 2 at Monks. Seeing as we are able to drop our worse result though, I might just have chosen the right match to miss as the final 3 are all at Hartleylands where things are far more interesting and the weather probably a lot better.

So I will leave the league now for a few weeks being join 1st on 9 points but when I return I shall be half way down the table at least with a lot of climbing to do. See you then!

1 Collin Wood 60-12 Peg 23
2 Nick Allen 59-7 Peg 36
3 Dennis Price 57-14 Peg 22
4 Rusty 57-00 peg 16
5 Russ Evans 53-10 peg 24
6 Squeaky (guest) 51-0 peg 31

League Placing

1 Ian Carley, 5-4, 124-8 9
2 Matt Love, 5-4, 107-1 9
3 Nick Gilbert, 5-3, 133-13 8
4 Collin Wood, 3-5, 110-9 8
5 Dennis Price, 4-4, 105-1 8
6 Nick Allen, 3-5, 103-1 8
7 Jonny Watt, 5-3, 95-5 8
8 Mark Hathway 4-4, 69-15 8
9 Russ Evans, 4-3, 104-3 7
10 Jeff Driscoll, 4-3, 82-14 7
11 Russell Graves, 0-5, 57-0 5
12 Paul Kell, 0-5, 44-4 5
13 Pete Allen 2-2 63-11 4
14 John Haige 2-2 33-1 4
15 Chris Jones 3-1 27-6 4
16 Brian Pink 2-2 19-15 4
17 Trevor Little 2-1 81-6 3
18 Paul Slater 3-0 39-7 3
19 Al Loader 0- 11-10 2

GOT Baits ISK League round 1 - Hartleylands

.…………..and so my 2009 season begins, with the first match of the GOT Baits ISK League held at Hartleylands on Peartree and Bramley lakes. With new stories to be told, new lessons to be learnt and hopefully more pools money in the bank than last year, I was looking forward to some fine weather and fine fishing. Arriving early, I found a few anglers already there and soon the car park was full of handshakes, banter and £1 side bets. The draw was made and I had 8 on Peartree which although was not in the gap between the islands where I would have wanted, it was a half decent peg with a 4AAA chuck to the island.





Once at my peg I started getting the gear out rigged with various weapons of mass destruction:

2 Milo 11’ Light Waggler rods both with 3lb line on TD-R2058 reels and rigged with 4AAA Nick Gilbert balsa wagglers and hair rigged pellet band to a 14 Drennan Carp Match on 0.16 Fox Micro.

A Milo New Era 11’ bomb rod with a ½ oz flat bomb to 6lb line on a TD-R3012 reel and a 3’ tail with a hair rigged pellet band onto a size 10 Drennan Carp Match on 0.18 Fox Micro.

A top kit with one of the dibbers I designed and made by Nick Gilbert on 0.20 Fox Micro and with a hair rigged pellet band to a 14 Drennan Carp match on 0.16 Fox Micro.

A top kit with a KC Carpa Cocker on 0.20 Fox Micro set at 3’ to fish paste down the margin, with a size 10 Drennan Carp Match on 0.18 Fox Micro.

Both kits had doubled Slip in them as I wanted to try the system out and I had doubled 6 in the dibber kit and doubled 8 in the paste kit.

I also brought a method rod with me but it stayed in the rod bag as I doubted I would need it. I did however bring with me a new piece of kit that I thought would make feeding easier and help keep my catapult safe. It was a Preston bowl that sits in a frame off a box leg and the bowl is deep and can be angled to sit closer to my leg and hand.



I thought this would make life a bit easier and also save the odd catty from taking a swim. I also bought 2 new Drennan catapults to try out. I’m not sure what they are called but they have a black conventional frame, strong black elastic and a stiff mesh pouch. They looked like they would survive easier and tangle less.

Given the good weather we have been having and the fact that the air was humid although not exactly warm, I was convinced that a shallow approach would do well and so my plan would be to feed 3 lines. Firstly the waggler up to the island which always produces from the first chuck, then a shallow line at 8.5m and finally a paste swim down the right hand margin among a clump of reeds.

Bait for the day would be a bag of paste mixed with Pineapple Atomic Cloud along with 15 pints of 6mm hard sinking pellets and a few red maggots. I like the bright fluorescent colour that the yellow Atomic Cloud gives and if there were any lumps down the edge I felt that they would easily find the paste!

So I was ready for the whistle and had a few new things to try out, the Preston bowl, the doubled Slip and the Drennan catapults.



At the sound of the whistle I fed 3 pouches of 6mm pellets up to the island, a small handful on the pole line and 4 hand fulls down the margin at 4m. Another pouch went out to the island followed by my waggler and as I reached for more pellets the tip went round and Carp no.1 was in the net. A good first half hour followed with another 7 fish in the net and on target for the 15 per hour average I had set myself to win the section and maybe even frame.

The second half hour went much the same as the first with another 8 fish in the net and I was constantly feeding the shallow pole line so my work rate was high and I was pleased that the sun was not too warm. My back was aching a bit though as the Preston bowl was slipping down the leg of my box and I was bending down to reach the pellets. Although I had the correct attachment inside the clamp, the clamp just wouldn’t tighten enough to grip the leg so a bit of a re-think will be needed here!

During the 2nd hour things became a little erratic, picking up a fish close to the island then needing to drop away, going deeper, shallowing up, holding off the feed, feeding heavier and so on. It seemed that there weren’t the volume of fish there that I had hoped but I was still catching and wanted to carry on feeding the pole line a bit longer before going over it. By the end of hour 2 I had only 26 fish in the net and was falling behind my target so I decided to rest the waggler swim and go over the 8.5m line. First put in and the float went under and the doubled 6 came peeling out of the top kit. Within seconds I realised I had hooked a big fish but it took the Carp a bit longer to realise this, the Slip was soft and began to act a bit like hollow where it just keeps going and you cannot control the fish. Off it charged and the Slip just kept going. I know my top kits are long but I thought there would be more power in the system than this! 15 minutes later and an 8lb Common was netted, hooked perfectly in the lip. I re-fed both swims and immediately swapped the rig over to my trusty 14 solid! Note to self: try using less Slip and make up the distance with something like Dacron that doesn’t stretch!

Back out on the 8.5m line and not a sniff, I think the Common had probably swam through the swim several times holding a sign saying “get the hell out of here”!

More pellets went out to the island then and out went the waggler and another 2 fish were in the net within as many minutes. This didn’t continue though as once again I had to mess around with accuracy, depth and feeding pattern to string some bites together. By the end of hour 3 I had 35 fish and decided that it was time to have a look down the edge while I rested the waggler line yet again. Out went the paste and I sat quietly expecting a nice big lump to come along for some dinner……………but no, not a sniff!

Back out on the waggler then and a few more fish came to the net but it was still slower than I was use to. It is only mid-April though and I had noticed that the general size of fish was bigger than last year so maybe I wasn’t doing too bad. I couldn’t see anyone else on the lake catching much although Nick Gilbert was lurking somewhere down the bank behind a bush and was probably winkling out a few fish.

With the fish seeming to be a bit cleverer than last year or just not in the mood for a proper nosh up, I ended hour 4 on about 42 fish and still couldn’t get a sniff down the edge or at 8.5m so it was all about the waggler line now. I picked up the bomb rod and it suddenly dawned on me that I forgot to mix up any stiff paste to fish the conker so all I could do was fish a banded pellet. The tip flew round but again I could only pick up odd fish here and there. This was very frustrating as I felt that the conker could have saved the day and I was extremely angry with myself! So my last hour consisted of picking up fish on the waggler or bomb and I ended with 48 in the net for what I felt would be 70lb-80lb.

The scales came round and Nick had whooped me putting 103lb on the board. I registered 79lb and won my section. The other lake fished even worse and left me with a 2nd overall but with a very welcome 5 points in the bag. Seeing as I have to miss 1 round, the points are extremely valuable.

Today was quite interesting for me as I managed to learn a few more things about this place, the fish and also the new tackle I was trying out. I still have a bit of work to do before I am really happy with the way I fish this place but maybe next time I will be better prepared and the winter cobwebs would have been swept away.

Results:

1 Nick Gilbert 103-13
2 Matt Love 79-9
3 Ian Carley 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 63-6
6 Russ Evans 50-9

League Placing

1 Nick Gilbert 5 103-13
2 Matt Love 5 79-9
3 Ian Carley 5 78-14
4 Jonny Watt 5 73-14
5 Jeff Driscoll 4 63-6
6 Russ Evans 4 50-9
7 Dennis Price 4 47-3
8 Mark Hathway 4 44-8
9 Collin Wood 3 49-13
10 Nick Allen 3 43-10
11 Paul Slater 3 39-7
12 Chris Jones 3 16-14
13 Trevor Little 2 48-8
4 Pete Allen 2 23-3
15 John Haige 2 19-5
16 Brian Pink 2 9-11
17 Rusty (on Holiday) 0
18 Alan Loader (forgot about the match!) 0